A Texas-sized disaster for Southern Miss as Golden Eagles suffer humiliating beating
Make it eight in a row.
Southern Miss (1-9, 0-6) found a way to crater deeper Saturday in San Marcos, Texas, suffering its worst loss of the season — a 58-3 demolishing at the hands of Texas State (6-4, 4-2).
It was the eighth straight loss by the Golden Eagles, and all have come by double digits. That ties the record for longest streak of double-digit losses by a current Sun Belt member since World War II, matching Arkansas State in 1954.
Ethan Crawford started at quarterback for USM, but Tate Rodemaker took a significant number of snaps. Rodemaker threw for 63 yards and Dreke Clark led on the ground with 66 rushing yards.
Texas State scored touchdowns on each of its first four drives on its way to amassing a school-record 703 total yards of offense.
Jordan McCloud threw for 335 yards and four touchdowns, leading an offense that scored the Bobcats’ most points against an FBS team since beating New Mexico State 66-28 in 2012.
Southern Miss is now one of just three FBS schools to have multiple eight-game losing streaks since 2020 while having the same head coach at the beginning of each streak.
The Golden Eagles are now 0-3 under interim coach Reed Stringer and have lost the last two games by a combined 89 points.
Digging deeper
Southern Miss hasn’t scored a touchdown since Kenyon Clay’s 15-yard run with 10:27 left in the third quarter of the James Madison loss on Oct. 26.
Since then the Eagles’ offense has run 155 plays, played through nine consecutive quarters without a touchdown, kicked only two field goals.
The six points scored over the last two games are the fewest in a two-game span since 1974. But that team won a game, beating Memphis 6-0 before getting shutout 52-0 by Alabama.
The 55-point margin of defeat to the Bobcats is the biggest for USM since losing 69-7 to Ole Miss in 1969.
Southern Miss has two more opportunities to nab an FBS win amid the search for a new head coach.
South Alabama visits Hattiesburg next week before the Golden Eagles end the season at Troy. Southern Miss has yet to beat the Jaguars in four attempts and have lost three in a row to the Trojans.
The Jags and Eagles are scheduled to kick off next Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
